The Muhler Co, Inc

The sales agent for Muhler came to our house, took measurements and recommended we replace our 6' doors and transom with 8' doors. We liked the idea as we thought they would look good and would provide more glass surface and therefore more natural light in our room. We signed the contract and gave Muhler a down payment of half Muhler's project cost estimate (over $5000). The sales agent said the doors would be installed in mid-January. However, they did not arrive until 2 months later which we were very upset about! We agreed to an installation date near the end of March. When Muhler showed up to install the doors, both doors were damaged from shipping. One so much it had to be returned to Muhler where we later were told it would cost over $1700 to repair. The other door had minor damage. So now we were looking at possibly another month or more delay and having to accept a door that had major repair done to it. In addition, the doors were 8 ft high but were 4" narrower so the total glass area was actually less then our old doors plus transom. So much for getting more light in our room. The sale agent had neglected to tell us this fact. So, we reluctantly decided to cancel the contract. Muhler accepted no responsibility for the huge delay in the project, or the damage to the doors, so would not refund our over $5000 deposit. We got a verbal apology but no satisfaction. Muhler had installed storm shutters for us several years earlier and done a good job. So, we did not check them out on Angie's list for this project. Our mistake as given the poor reviews from other customers, we would not have hired them. Overall, we found the communication from Muhler to be incomplete and many times totally inaccurate.

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Short answer: a terrible experience. To give perspective, remember this: when Muhler started the actual work, the property next to us was all trees. We signed our contract and gave deposit in September of 2013 with the targeted completion by Thanksgiving. We were told that when the windows were delivered, the whole project would take no more than two weeks after that. The crew arrived the first week of November to remove the existing screens and start framing. The lot next door had just cleared their trees to begin building their house. In the first week of December, I asked their scheduler when the job would continue. This was already past their completion target of Thanskgiving. I was e-mailed that the windows were due in that week. All this time, we had a framed in but exposed second floor porch awaiting windows. On December 12th I was alerted that Muhler had received the windows and would schedule installation after going through quality control. In December, a hired electrician came by to run electrical for a Heating/Cooling unit to be installed. He let us know that he was a part timer and could only work weekends or after his regular job. However, his wife did not want him working weekends so he would have to work evenings. Yet he needed light and there was not much light in the evenings. He also let us know he would not be running the electrical under the house (3 foot crawl space) as we had requested. He just won't. For two weeks he did not show up, which was problematic because the crew was already working on the framing and windows when he finally arrived. Once he arrived on December 18th, he seemed in no physical shape to work, almost falling off his ladder. He became abusive with my wife when she asked why he could not do the electrical as requested under the house, and we had to have Muhler come out and remove him from our property. The work was not completed by the time we left for Christmas vacation and we allowed them to keep working while we were away, as long as they entered through ladders and not the house. Once we returned, we noted some discrepancies on Jan 2, 2014, and asked them to get the electricians out to finish their work (new electricians). The fixes were done and the electricians came out but voiced displeasure that they had to do things the "wrong" way because they were not called out early enough. We also noted the exterior was not wrapped per the salesman's promise. The response was there was no way they could do that. On January 17, a Mt. Pleasant inspector came out and failed the inspection. He was called out to do an in progress inspection and when he saw the job was complete, he failed it because he could not see the framing, electrical, or insulation. We were told to remove the ceiling and wrapping so he could see it. A new crew came out and began taking everything down. I'm glad they did. We found wood that was installed with the framing had started to rot and mold. It had not been properly protected. The framing had to be removed. The framing was not strapped per the plans. It was a mess. A new crew redid the entire job. They were not done until the end of March. An inspector came to the house to inspect the strapping on March 20th and gave approval for that. The work was not done until the end of March. On April 2nd, another inspection was schedule and again FAILED because Muhler had not acquired the in progress inspection again. The Inspector told us to remove the work again so he could inspect it. Several days later I got a message from Muhler that the work was approved. I called the inspector and he said that he still rejected it. Muhler sent another e-mail saying that the owner of Muhler had a talk with head building inspector and the work was finally approved. I went to the building office at Mt. P and they produced a document showing me it was still not approved. Fortunately on the day that the inspector came on March 20th, my wife had taken many photos of the work in progress. We submitted them to the town and it showed the insulation, electrical, and strapping quite clearly. The next week I went to the building office and received an notice that our job was improved. Note that this was because of work we did for Muhler. In the end, the work still was not done very well, with dents, dings, and parts off line throughout. The salesman came to my house today and presented the final bill. I asked him if he felt that they deserved the full amount and he said yes. That vacant lot next door is now almost a complete house. We have an all right room with obvious defects and we worry that the material they used will start to rust within six years - according to a contractor. And a yard that is pretty well trashed, because they used a large area of our back yard as the staging area for their work. This all seems pretty unbelievable, but these are the facts and I've kept the e-mails, texts, and voice mails. While I hope that ours is a very rare case, it is my only experience with them. I kept them at a D instead of an F because at least they got the work done. Now I'll see if it stands up over time.